Hollywood producers could do worse than looking at those with superpowers in the East rather than producing another run-of-the-mill comic book blockbuster... A samurai who cut a baseball with his sword might just be the inspiration they were looking for.

The samurai named Isao Machii became an internet sensation this week, after a video demonstrating his stunning powers of concentration and super fast reaction skills was posted on YouTube.

Dressed in black attire, the man with a sword is stood on a pedestal, with baseballs thrown at him through a special net. One of the fastballs was registered at a speed of 161 km/h (100 mph). The samurai knew exactly where to put his sword and the ball was sliced clean in two.

He then put his sword down and calmly walked away, passing the baseball lying on the ground, which had been perfectly cut in half. Given the samurai's position was marked at 9.22 meters (30 feet) from the net, he had just 0.2 seconds to react to the ball, which is even faster than a person can blink.